Australia's mineral exploration industry
For more than a generation, Australia’s global competitive advantage in the minerals industry has been based on huge, high-quality resources discovered in the 1960s and 1970s. However, many of these key deposits are now depleting or are decreasing in quality or grade.
If this industry that contributes around eight per cent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product is to continue, we need to ‘restock the larder’. In other words, find new deposits.
Roughly 80 per cent of Australia’s land mass is covered by transported material called regolith. However, almost all our major deposits are in areas where the basement rock can be easily accessed. Simple arithmetic suggests there are major deposits still to be found.
We work with Australian mineral explorers and government agencies to increase the country’s prospectivity and its share of global exploration investment.
Our integrated R&D program focuses on the unique challenges of the Australian landscape and its geological endowment to help drive exploration and increase our understanding of how mineral systems create giant ore bodies. The tools we are developing will unlock new search areas through increasingly deep discoveries and new greenfield discoveries.
We are working to increase the country’s prospectivity and its share of global exploration investment. Our integrated research and development program focuses on the unique challenges of the Australian landscape and geological endowment to help drive exploration and increase our understanding of how mineral systems create giant ore bodies.
The tools we are developing will unlock new search areas through increasingly deep discoveries and new greenfield discoveries.
